webOS 1.4.5 Update Released for AT&T Palm Pixi Plus

October 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Owners of the AT&T Palm Pixi Plus should be excited today as Palm has released the webOS 1.4.5 update that should be hitting your phone OTA. The big news here is that you’ll now be able to enjoy PDK developed games, so we don’t mind if go get your Angry Birds on.

webOS Update

Full changelog:

  • Version: webOS 1.4.5
  • Release date: 11 October 2010

New applications

NONE

Feature changes to existing applications

System

  • This release includes minor fixes and enhancements to support the public release of the webOS PDK.

Web

  • If a user enters text in a field on certain websites, the screen focus now remains on the text being entered.
  • This release fixes a rare problem so that podcasts now download correctly.

Security

This release addresses several security issues with the Palm webOS software.

We’d like to thank Nils of MWR InfoSecurity and Chris Clark for their help in identifying the issues addressed in this release. Individuals interested in contacting Palm to report suspected security issues can find more information at palm.com/security.

via @palm

Filed Under: News, Palm, webOS, webOS Phones Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Get your catapults ready, AngryBirds webOS is imminent!

August 20, 2010 by Leave a Comment

I posted a while back about RovioMobile saying that they were considering porting their app to our beloved platform. Well today, me and my mucker @benfysh on twitter came at the dev like a two pronged attack and Mr AngryBirds confirmed that the hold up has been due to issues with the game on the Pixi, which need ironing out. Of course, I gave the dev a gentle nudge to say I had no problem with him pushing the Pre release out and releasing the Pixi version at a later date ;)  He also confirmed that the webOS version will be receiving the newest level packs 2 and 3, and will be updating all his mobile versions in-line with one another!

Oh, for those that may have missed the short sneak peak video that RovioMobile posted, you can go watch it here! Angry Birds webOS

Filed Under: News, webOS, webOS Phones Tagged With: , , , , ,

PDK Hot apps begins July 15th – but where is webOS 1.4.5?

July 13, 2010 by Leave a Comment

With the impending PDK (Plugin Development Kit) Hot Apps Program almost ready to roll in a couple of days, and what with the program already being pushed back from originally pinned date of July 1st, you’re certainly left wondering where the latest webOS firmware update is that was supposed to hit all Palm Pre’s and Pixi’s via an OTA update well over a week ago.  For those not in the know, the 1.4.5 update is to bring PDK gaming to the Pixi and also finally allow independent developers to get their mitts on the SDK/PDK.

However, following the roll-out of 1.4.5 in some parts of Europe, a bug was discovered, in that the PDK wasn’t properly ‘jailing’ the applications. Basically ‘jailing’ the applications is an essential and deliberate measure to protect the whole OS’s security over the apps having control of certain unauthorised parts of the OS. (If you’re interested to read more about this bug then follow the geek trail over to this thread on the Palm Developer Forums).  Of course, what seems have happened is Palm pulled the plug on the OTA update and have been busy squirrelling away fixing it.  But what with the PDK Hot Apps program kicking off so soon, I think we’ll certainly be seeing 1.4.5 (or what is rumoured to be 1.4.5.1) pushed to our devices very, very soon!

I don’t know about you guys, but I am very excited about seeing a big roll-out of ported apps thanks to the PDK. The future definitely looks bright for webOS in my eyes.

As as side, yet very important note for those keen homebrewers (like me), please make sure you check out this thread over on PreCentral which explains about some patches that must be removed prior to the update.

Filed Under: News, webOS Tagged With: ,

webOS 1.4.5 Coming Soon, Possible Delay for AT&T Users

June 17, 2010 by Leave a Comment

We’re a bit behind on this one, but in case you haven’t heard, webOS 1.4.5 is coming real soon. The big news for Palm Pixi owners will be the ability to play PDK (Plug-in Development Kit) games, so now you’ll have access to all the great 3D games that were previously available only for the Palm Pre and Palm Pre Plus. We expect a steady flow of PDK games hitting the App Catalgo when the second Hot Apps contest launches July 1st.

Carrier testing for webOS 1.4.5 is almost finished, with one carrier needing a minor bug fix. AT&T is reportedly pushing back on releasing the update so soon after the launch of webOS devices on their network. To us, this makes absolutely no sense. The beauty of webOS is the ability to push OTA (over-the-air) updates that result in a more stable phone and often new features. If you purchased a Palm Pixi Plus from AT&T, then you’ll want this update for the 3D gaming.

The new release of webOS will be the last major update before a major update in the fall.

Source: PreCentral

Filed Under: News, webOS Tagged With: , ,

Palm PDK Hot Apps Contest Starts July 1st

June 10, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Palm’s Hot Apps contest ends on June 30th and the fun begins again for developers starting on the following day. Yes, Palm is once again putting up some hard, cold cash for hot apps to the tune of $1 million dollars. This time around it’s exclusively for PDK apps, so you can expect to see an influx of games coming to the App Catalog.

hotapp_pdk_lg

The contest runs through August 31st. Developers can read up about it at Palm’s Developer Portal. Want to see who’s winning the hearts, minds and wallets of webOS customers? Check out Palm’s Hot Apps Leaderboard.

Filed Under: News, Palm Tagged With: , ,

Firefox Ported To webOS Using PDK

April 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Not that we’ve got any issue with Palm’s browser, but here’s an interesting development. One enterprising developer is using Palm’s PDK to port Firefox to webOS.

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via @dalmaer via @acarback

Filed Under: webOS Tagged With: , ,

Palm’s PDK To Allow Porting of iPhone Apps?

March 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Next week brings the Game Developer’s Conference and Palm is expected to chat about their PDK (Plug-in Developer Kit). In an interesting twist, word comes from John Paczkowski (via Dieter Bohn) that Palm’s PDK will allow easy porting of iPhone apps to Palm’s webOS.

Perhaps more importantly, the PDK will allow devs to rewrite mobile apps that they’ve built for other platforms to run on webOS with minimal modifications. iPhone apps can be ported over in a matter of days, sources close to the company tell me, and they don’t really suffer any degradation in performance.

When we spoke with Palm reps at CES 2010, they indicated to us that the PDK was mainly a tool used for developing games. So we’re not sure what to expect next week and if this will actually impact apps for webOS. Palm’s mantra has been quality and not necessarily quantity. Trailing in the Apps Numbers race, that’s a convenient argument. The PDK developed games are certainly on par with other platforms, so perhaps this news will bring ports of better apps for the platform. We’re all for the quality over quantity, but outside of PDK developed games,  the current crop of webOS apps does not best apps available on the iPhone. If the PDK can be used to port actual apps over to webOS, this would be great news for the webOS community and for developers. If it only takes days, we’re hoping Atebits will jump in and give us Tweetie 2 for webOS.

Filed Under: webOS Tagged With: , , , ,